Congress: The demise of Speaker John Boehner can showcase a party in disarray, or it can be an opportunity to install bold, new leadership. It’s up to Republican House members.

You know Barack Obama is laughing at the sight of his political enemies in Congress devouring their own. And the establishment media will gloat endlessly about how John Boehner falling on his sword bloodies Republican chances to win the presidency next year.

It doesn’t have to be that way at all. This is not a setback; it’s an opportunity. But only if House Republicans grab it for dear life.

Boehner’s exit should send a clear message to Mitch McConnell and other comfy GOP Senate leaders the year before elections that could threaten their majority: When 62% of Republicans feel betrayed by their party, as a new Fox poll shows, mutiny’s in the air. That air could blow over to the Senate side of the Capitol.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is running for president, doesn’t look so much like a “wacko bird” now for ruffling McConnell’s feathers, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called him. McCain, McConnell and their fellow play-safe Republicans are increasingly looking like dodo birds, as in impending political extinction.

Boehner obstructed Obama when he took the reins of power in the House in 2011, but there’s too much he didn’t do. In our system of separation of powers, the opposition should continually pass bills for the president to sign. Boehner didn’t.

Obama’s veto — on issues ranging from repealing and replacing ObamaCare to human body parts trafficking to tax cuts to debt to rebuilding our military — would not have been GOP defeats. Obama and congressional Democrats would all be on record opposing Republican alternatives to their disastrous policies.

Will Republicans grasp this big opportunity to replace Boehner with his second-in-command, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California? Is that the bottom-up revolution the GOP base wants?

House members can elect even a nonmember of Congress as speaker. How about the most effective House Republican leader in history: Tom DeLay, known as “The Hammer” for maintaining party discipline and winning close votes?

In 2013 and again in 2014, DeLay’s politicized conviction on campaign finance violations was overturned, vindicating the former Lone Star State congressman. A resurrected DeLay, now 68, would electrify the Tea Party movement and terrify Democrats.

Or how about Mia Love of Utah, the first black Republican woman in Congress’ history? Born in Brooklyn of Haitian immigrants, the 39-year-old is a staunch Tea Party conservative committed to shrinking government and expanding economic opportunity.

Love as the face of the Republican Congress would be a nightmare for liberal Democrats who feed on portraying the GOP as a party of rich, white men.

But whoever replaces Boehner, it had better be someone of vision and aggressiveness. GOP supporters are sick of feeling betrayed.

Conservative commentator and radio talk show host Mark Levin warns that conservatives shouldn’t grow complacent after House Speaker John Boehner’s resignation.

Boehner, R-Ohio, announced Friday that he will resign both his position as speaker and his seat in Congress at the end of October.

“It’s a great day,” said Levin, speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning. “But here’s the problem: They’re like zombies. There’s one after the other, after the other, after the other, and they just sort of replace each other with the next one in line. So it’s good news, but I, and I think you, are concerned about the next step. So who replaces John Boehner?”

Levin said that the Republican establishment sees conservatives as people who have to be “managed” and “messaged” to.

“And I want Eric Cantor to know, since he came out of Manhattan over the weekend in order to defend his friend John Boehner, I want you to know something, Mr. Cantor: We fully understand how our government works. We fully understand that you guys just have the House and the Senate, and we fully understand that when the Democrats just have the House and the Senate, and there’s a Republican president, somehow, they know what to do, somehow, they get things done. Your day has passed, get out of the way, and let some energetic conservatives who really mean what they say do what they need to do.”

Levin said the establishment of the Republican Party is more than willing to cede the budget battle over Planned Parenthood funding to President Barack Obama.

“Don’t tell us that we’re not going to shut down the government,” Levin said. “You put those bills on his desk and let him shut down the government.”

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I am "56PackardMan" a.k.a. «Louis la Vache».
My favorite cars are Packards - and my favorite Packards are the '56 models. This blog is mostly about cars and frequently those cars will be Packards - or my other auto passion, Studebaker, particularly the '53-'54 Commander Starliners. "Jerry Mander" will post rants about our corrupt politicians of BOTH parties each week and «Louis» invites you to visit each Friday for "The Friday Funnies."